Milwaukee Meltdown: Bucks Face A Crossroads After Another Bitter Playoff Exit

In the event you’ve adopted sports activities — at any degree — for greater than 5 minutes, you’ve in all probability heard not less than one coach or participant say “the higher crew received” after struggling a painful, surprising defeat.

That age-old cliche, although, was not the case Wednesday evening when the Milwaukee Bucks’ season and championship hopes got here to a surprising and abrupt ended with a 128-126 extra time loss to the Miami Warmth in Recreation 5 of their first-round Jap Convention Playoff collection.

No, the higher crew didn’t win that sport, nor did the higher crew win the collection. And by no means is {that a} knock in opposition to the Warmth, which performed basketball at an out-of-this-world-level to tug off a five-game upset in opposition to the top-seeded crew this postseason.

As an alternative, it’s an indictment or, maybe extra precisely, a damnation of the Bucks’ themselves and their efficiency in a collection that ought to have been not a cakewalk, however a primary step towards their second championship in three seasons, one which might cement this model of the Bucks as a authentic NBA powerhouse.

However with an growing older — to not point out, costly — roster, it stands to cause that large modifications are on the horizon for Milwaukee the place even head coach Mike Budenholzer might discover himself out of a job when the crew reconvenes later this summer time, closing the e book on a five-year run that’s each among the many finest in addition to probably the most disappointing in franchise historical past.

During the last 5 seasons, since Budenholzer was employed to interchange Jason Kidd and his interim substitute, Joe Prunty, no crew has compiled a greater report than the Bucks, who’ve gone 271-130 throughout that five-year stretch.

That success, although, merely hasn’t translated over to the postseason the place the Bucks have received only one championship regardless of ending with the league’s finest report 3 times.

Throughout that very same stretch, Milwaukee has received eight of its 12 postseason collection with half of these coming throughout their run to the championship in 2021 however even then. The remainder have been a mixture of first-round cakewalks and head-scratching disappointments.

Let’s make a journey down historical past lane, we could?

After their rebuild stalled beneath Kidd, the Bucks went out and employed Budenholzer as head coach and the outcomes had been mind-blowing. Milwaukee blew by means of the common season, ending a league-best 60-22 to earn the No. 1 total seed.

The Bucks adopted that by sweeping Detroit within the first spherical, then bouncing again from a Recreation 1 loss to Boston with 4 straight victories within the Jap Convention Semifinals earlier than taking a 2-0 lead over Toronto within the convention finals.

However with an opportunity to advance to the NBA Finals for the primary time since 1974, the Bucks as a substitute dropped 4 straight to the Raptors, who went on to win their first-ever NBA Championship.

A yr later, the Bucks had been once more a regular-season powerhouse and held the league’s finest report when the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic introduced the schedule – and world – to a sudden cease in March.

When the league restarted in its Florida bubble, the Bucks received simply two of 5 “seeding-round” video games however after simply dispatching Orlando within the first spherical, dropped three straight to Miami within the convention semifinals earlier than in the end bowing out in 5 video games.

Milwaukee lastly bought over the hump in 2021 however even then, the street to the title was removed from dominant.

The Bucks completed with their worst report beneath Budenholzer, going 46-36 to earn the East’s No. 3 seed. After opening the postseason with a straightforward sweep of Miami, Milwaukee dropped two straight to Brooklyn within the second spherical. After night the collection with two straight victories at dwelling, the groups break up the following two to arrange a decisive Recreation 7 in Brooklyn the place the Bucks’ season probably would have ended had Kevin Durant’s measurement 14 foot not been on the 3-point line when he knocked down an extended, game-tying 2-pointer on the finish of regulation.

Milwaukee went on to win in extra time and bought previous Atlanta in six video games to advance to the Finals. Once more, the Bucks fell behind early with two straight losses to the Suns earlier than rallying for 4 straight victories to clinch their first title in 50 years.

The Bucks’ title protection began with one other first-round cakewalk, this time in opposition to the Bulls however Khris Middleton’s knee damage throughout that collection left him unavailable when Milwaukee opened the second spherical in opposition to Boston.

Regardless of Middleton’s absence, the Bucks had an opportunity to shut out the collection at dwelling in Recreation 6 however fell, 108-95, to pressure a Recreation 7 in Boston the place the Celtics cruised to a 109-81 victory over the defending champs.

That brings us again to the current, and the aforementioned loss to Miami which could – and, maybe, ought to – be probably the most painful lack of this period.

Plain and easy, the Bucks ought to have received that collection. Of all of the groups assembled over the past 5 years, this was the deepest and most gifted group of all of them — much more so than the squad that took the title two years in the past.

To not simply fall quick, however to not even advance out of the primary spherical is an utter and full failure, irrespective of how Giannis Antetokounmpo tries to spin it and if this really is the tip of the Bucks of their present iteration, it’s truthful to take a look at this five-year stretch not as a whole failure due to their 2021 title, however on the very least a disappointment as a result of for all of the Bucks achieved, the possibility to do extra was there for the taking.